


equivalent exchange

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Friendship, Gen, Magic, Near Death Experiences, Near Drowning, Water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 22:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14342724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: “I curse you,” Anankos said, “to be happy.”





	equivalent exchange

**Author's Note:**

> I mentioned the ending of Wind Waker to a friend today and then I saw [this post](https://wholesomethemedmemes.tumblr.com/post/172947379792/this-is-how-tiffany-haddish-ended-her-standup) and then this came to be. It's short because the end of the semester is coming up and I'm getting pretty busy, but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway!
> 
> Originally I was going to write a different type of near death thing, but this is probably more interesting. 
> 
> Minor note about the character death at the bottom for spoilers! But go down there and read it if you're concerned at all!

“I curse you,” Anankos said, “to be happy.”

The frenzied rush of water nearly swallowed his words whole, but Odin somehow caught them anyway. He twisted his head in Anankos’ direction, carefully eyeing the ceiling as he did. It was full of fissures and the force of the water above their heads only succeeded in creating even more and widening the cracks that were already there, but the ceiling wasn’t going to collapse on top of their heads just yet.

“What?” Odin said, raising his voice to be heard over the water. He moved closer to Anankos, ever step sending ripples through the water. It was only ankle height, but it was rising much too quickly, the way water often did. The way the water in Valla always seemed to most of all.

“I’m cursing you,” Anankos said plainly. His face looked like a cross between something sad and content, and Odin didn’t like it any more than he liked the fact they were all about to drown. Or were about to be crushed by debris. Whatever came first.

“Curse?” Odin echoed.

Selena, shield raised over her head, squinted at them curiously.

Odin shook his head and looked around again, desperately attempting to ignore the way the water was swiftly rising around his calves. With a thunderous groan, a chunk of thick stone fell from the ceiling and another waterfall began to pour in from the lake above them. It was one waterfall of many. He winced.

“We can sort out any more curses after we find a way out of here,” Odin said, straining his voice to be heard. He’d never known water to be so loud before. The last time they had defeated a dragon, it had been out in the open, not in magically sealed chamber in the underwater kingdom of Valla. “We need to find an exit!”

The double doors they had used to enter the chamber had been blocked off with debris since the fight had begun. Now that it was over, the only other exists were the holes in the ceiling. And unless they suddenly found a way to sprout gills and swim upstream like salmon, the chamber would likely flood long before they figured out a way to swim their way out. Or so Odin thought.

Things were beginning to look very grim indeed.

“I don’t think there’s another entrance to this room,” Selena announced, trudging her way back through the water towards them. It was becoming difficult to move. “You don’t happen to have any other secret magic tricks to get us out of here, do you?”

Odin shrugged with a grimace.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he said. He glanced over to his side. Anankos’ face remained carefully blank.

Selena brushed her damp hair out of her face with a huff. “Yeah, thought so.”

She looked just as nervous as Odin felt.

“Come here,” Anakos said firmly, sounding determined. “All of you.”

Selena and Odin glanced at each other. Selena stepped closer with another splash, and Odin found himself moving in her direction on instinct. She raised her shield above both their heads as if it could protect them from the flood. It couldn’t, obviously, but it at least kept some of the misty spray from one of the nearby waterfalls off their faces.

Laslow slowly backed up in their direction, his gaze never leaving the far wall. With spiderweb cracks running throughout its length and the quickly growing streams of water that were forcing their way through the cracks, it seemed as if the entire wall was going to burst at any given moment, likely flooding the chamber in an instant. Odin wasn’t surprised when Laslow nervously said as much.

“No,” the human Anankos said, shaking his head, seemingly heedless of the water that had already their thighs. “It won’t.”

“Oh?” Laslow said. His voice wavered, and Odin reached for his hand on instinct. Laslow squeezed back and forced a fake smile onto his face. Odin barely swallowed his own panic. “So you’ve found a way out?”

“No,” Anankos said. His grim face betrayed his words. “But you’re not going to die here.”

“It would be great if you told us what we’re going to do then,” Selena said, “because I’d prefer not to drown today.”

Anankos looked at them carefully. Odin felt the water rush past his hips in what felt like mere seconds. Some more stone must have given way, he thought. They were running out of time.

“You’re going to survive this,” Anankos said. His voice was tempered and even—the exact opposite of how Odin felt. “Because I’m cursing you.”

“You keep saying that, my friend, but I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean!” The cascade of water around them was neigh deafening. Odin squeezed Laslow’s hand tighter, and Selena pulled them both closer with her free hand, still not dropping her shield. It must have weighed down her arm like an anchor, and yet she didn’t let go. Something strange tingled in Odin’s stomach. “What curse?”

“And is _right_ _now_ the time?” Laslow added, looking strained.

Ignoring them, Anankos said, “I’m cursing you.”

A small smile had begun to curl over Anankos’ strange, half-hidden features, and it bloomed larger with every word. The water was cool and awful, but Anankos words curled around them like a woven boat.

“I’m cursing you, and you—all three of you—are going to live long, happy lives.”

Selena’s eyebrows knitted together with her frown. “But not you?”

Anankos didn’t answer.

“You’re going to live long lives full of laughter and happiness whether you want to or not,” he said. Anankos’ voice sounded more joyful and vibrant with every new syllable. “You are going to fall in love and be loved, and you live a long, long time. The three of you are going to find happiness in everyday joys and you will be triumphant in the struggles you put your mind to and, most of all, you are going to survive this.”

He sounded certain. The tingling in Odin’s stomach grew stronger.

There were bubbles below the surface of the water, air pockets that formed with every new wave that came crashing down around them, and suddenly he realized those bubbles were gathering around the lower halves of their bodies with magic, engulfing their limbs with little pockets of air the same way they had already begun to be engulfed by the water.

“I don’t understand!” Selena shouted. New parts of the ceiling and walls had given way and the water was up to their chests now, but that didn’t matter because Odin didn’t think he could move anyway, caught by a will much stronger than his own. “Why is it a curse?”

“Something to do with the way magic works?” Laslow asked. He looked to Odin.

Odin shook his head. He hadn’t been a mage all that long, and it had been through Anankos’ own magic anyway. “I don’t know!”

“I’m cursing you!” Anankos shouted back. He looked so _happy_. “You are going to bring joy to other’s lives as much as you have brought peace to mine! You will never lose sight of one another or what’s important, and you will _live_!”

The growing layer of bubbles around their legs and waists had begun to fuse with one another until they had created three very large air bubbles, one of each surrounding Odin and his friends. The water was choppy and filled with grit, but Odin didn’t see any bubbles around Anankos’s own waist. He only saw Anankos’s toothy grin under the hood.

And suddenly Odin understood the intensity in Anankos’s voice perfectly, because cursing someone’s future—especially a positive future—with mere words wasn’t the way curses worked at all. There needed to be something valuable given up in exchange. Especially for something that went against the very nature of curses.

Odin said, “Wait—”

The far wall burst, and all three of them reached out for one another right as the water and bubbles overtook them.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: The character that dies here dies in-game as well, just not the same way. It's more heavily implied that outright stated as well, if that helps at all.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/) I get a lot of FE14 meta and fic related asks there, so feel free to browse through my "asks" or "fe14" tag for some extra stuff from me and your fellow readers you may not see over here. Or send in a question of your own if you had one. Thanks for reading!


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